DEPARTMENT OF TRAINING & WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

Life experience

Background &
tasks

 

The Western Australia State Government is committed to supporting people of all ages and backgrounds to develop the confidence and skills they need to successfully participate in the workforce. The Department of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD) provides a range of specialist services, programs and subsidised training and courses to assist and support people to improve their employment prospects.

Rare was engaged by DTWD to develop a targeted marketing campaign to raise awareness of the training and employment opportunities available to under- represented groups in Western Australia.

Our
objectives

 

  • Motivate the under-represented groups to want to seek out opportunities.
  • Boost the uptake of women, mature age workers and retirees re-entering the workforce, youth at risk, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people from culturally diverse backgrounds and people with disability, into Vocational Education and Training (VET) and employment to increase their participation in the State’s workforce.
  • Raise awareness of the training and employment opportunities available including free and low fee training, pre-employment programs, the Jobs and Skills WA website and Jobs and Skills Centres.
  • Promote the State Government’s commitment to improving employment outcomes for under- represented groups in WA.

Defining the
audience

 

With such a wide-ranging and diverse target audience, it was essential we treated each audience individually, not a one size fits all approach. These six under-represented audience groups are outlined below:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI)
  • Youth at risk (unemployed or under employed young people aged 15 to 24)
  • Culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) people
  • People with disability
  • Women (re-entering the workforce)
  • Mature age workers and retirees (re-entering the workforce)

Approach and
strategy

 

With our target audience from a broad range of backgrounds and with differing experiences within the workforce, we had to define and understand their motivations and barriers before commencement of any creative concepts of messages. We partnered with Metrix Consulting to carry out detailed primary research as part of this first phase.

Gathering the valuable insights from the primary research with Metrix led to a new brand proposition: Jobs and Skills WA is your supportive partner to a more fulfilled life.

Identifying
and overcoming
potential
challenges

 

Whilst working on targeting the under-represented audience groups campaign strategy, we identified a challenge driven by a key campaign objective. If we increase the demand amongst the target audience groups for training and employment, there needs to also be a supply of authentic employment opportunities and inclusivity within society for our audiences.

We proposed that DTWD develop a separate advertising campaign specifically to target the all- important Employers audience to:

  • Increase awareness of the benefits of a diverse workforce.
  • Increase awareness about the support Jobs and Skills Centres (JSCs) provide to employers in the way of financial and operational support.
  • Increase awareness of how JSCs are helping to work with under-represented groups to transform their life experience into qualifications required for their workplaces.

As part of two complementary campaigns, we identified the following communication goals:

EMPLOYEE CAMPAIGN
  • Change how the target audience think and feel about their personal life and employment prospects
  •  Increase the number of target audience participating in Jobs and Skills WA training opportunities
  • Increase the number of our target audience applying for employment opportunities
EMPLOYER CAMPAIGN
  • Increase the number of employment opportunities available for the target audience (Employer campaign)

Strategic &
creative approach

 

People believe that you need work experience to get a job. So, when you’ve been out of the workforce for a while, or you’ve never been given a chance, like the six under-represented groups, it feels like you don’t have much to offer. Instead of feeling empowered to work towards getting the job you want, these target audience groups are reminded of their sense of feeling ‘othered’ and judged by society. What if we could resonate with them by emphasising on how their life experience is just as meaningful? That their life experience is worth as much as work experience, and it is something that everyone has.

We wanted to demonstrate to our target audiences that they have more to offer than they realise. The campaign creative paired typical job ad requirements with traits that are often seen outside of a work context through their everyday life experiences. For example, a new mum multi-tasking at home by taking care of her baby, paying her bills and answering her phone or a teenager practising basketball for hours, showing their commitment and determination.

The ‘Life Experience’ creative concept was also applied to the Employers campaign, with the aim to show employers that employees’ life skills are transferable and can be a huge asset for their business. Adapting the campaign concept for both audiences allowed for a cost-efficient use of our production budget and allowed us to show a variety of authentic and impactful scenarios. Our integrated campaign empowered each target audience to believe that they have the skillset to contribute to the WA workforce and be an engaged member of society.

Bespoke media communication strategies were developed by Hearts & Science to target our six target audience groups across the required brand and retail key messages. Hearts & Science were able to explore target audiences to define their media habits, employment and education status to inform the most efficient media channels for reach and engagement.

Hearts & Science were able to explore target audiences to define media habits, employment and education status to inform the most efficient media channels for reach and engagement.

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